Proposed Regional Jail Already Booked Up

Number Of Prisoners May Outpace Space

A proposed Hampton Roads Regional Jail designed to ease prisoner overcrowding at four local city jails is already booked solid, and construction hasn't even begun.

By the time the new jail is ready to house its first inmates - at least three years from now - the problem will be worse.

"As soon as it's turned over to the regional jail authority, we will have inmates available to go in," said Hampton Sheriff B. J. Roberts. "With the current overcrowding in all of our jails, we needed to have this done yesterday."

Hampton will share the jail with Newport News, Norfolk and Portsmouth. Roberts, who serves on the 12-member Hampton Roads Regional Jail Authority, said the new building will provide 875 beds, with about 175 beds allocated for Hampton prisoners.

While he welcomes the additional jail space, Roberts said it won't come close to meeting his city's needs.

"In Hampton, we're certified by the Department of Corrections to hold 160 inmates, and today's population is 453," Roberts said Monday.

The story is much the same in the other cities. Maj. Chuck Moore, city jail administrator for Newport News, said the city's jail has housed up to 589 inmates in recent weeks, despite a rated capacity of 248.

The regional jail was a short-term solution that was never billed as a cure-all, Moore said. "It's not going to solve the problem," he said. "But it will help. There will be 200 prisoners moved out of here ... that we would otherwise be housing."

In the long run, Moore said, Newport News - and for that matter, all of the cities - will have to improve their own jails.

"By 1998, they expect us to have over 800 inmates in the jail," Moore said. "So even with 200 of them going to the regional jail, we'll still be where we are right now."

Arthur L. Collins, executive director of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission and currently the regional jail authority's only staff member, said the regional jail will differ from local lockups in that it is designed to handle "problem" prisoners: juveniles, women, and those with medical conditions such as drug abuse and pregnancy, as well as AIDS and other diseases.

"It's no secret that this facility will not solve all of the jail needs for the four communities involved," Collins said. "We're trying to solve some unique problems with problem prisoners that there is no space for in the local jails."

The building will include a self-contained medical facility that will help alleviate the problem of prisoners escaping while receiving treatment at local hospitals, Collins said.

"You won't be able to do brain surgery there, but deputies won't be tied up taking prisoners for routine medical or dental care," Collins said. "What this will do is give the sheriffs a more manageable population in their local jails."

In return for their stake in the jail, Collins said, each of the four cities recently agreed to back a $4 million line of credit to complete the design work, fund a staff position, and to pay for the engineering package and the financing necessary to build the jail.

Collins put the project's final cost at $59 million "plus some change," with the Virginia Department of Corrections expected to provide up to half the funding. The participating cities will divide up the rest, based partly on the number of beds each city is allocated.

The jail is scheduled to be built in the Hattonsville section of Portsmouth, near Interstate 264 and Tower Mall. Portsmouth sheriff Gary W. Waters said his city will receive a tax break and additional beds in return for providing the land for the project.

Yet several area residents don't want the jail in their community, and a state delegate from Portsmouth filed a bill in Richmond Monday that would prohibit the building of the regional jail in Hattonsville. Del. Kenneth R. Melvin said the elderly residents in the community have been "put upon because they are the path of least resistance."

"Nobody wants this facility in their back yard, and these people are the least able to fight back," Melvin said. "Above and beyond that, they were previously told by the City Council that the jail would not be placed in their community."

"The City Council and the city of Portsmouth addressed those issues many months ago," responded Collins, "and we are moving forward. We've been working on this for a lot of years, and it's just about ready."

Waters, the regional jail authority's vice chairman, said community opposition is typical whenever a new jail is proposed.

"Everybody wants to lock 'em up and throw away the key, but not in their back yard," he said.

Waters also argued that the regional jail will generate more than 300 jobs for the people of Portsmouth. "We can certainly use those jobs," he said.

HAMPTON ROADS REGIONAL JAIL

* WHAT IS IT?: A regional jail to house sentenced prisoners - particularly "problem" inmates - from Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk and Portsmouth.

* COST: $59 million. The Virginia Department of Corrections will pay up to 50 percent, with the remaining cost divided among the four cities.

* CAPACITY: The proposed facility will provide 875 beds. Jail officials say it can be expanded if needed, though they wouldn't specify by how much.

* HOW THE BEDS WILL BE ALLOCATED: Hampton will get 175, Newport News will get 200, and Norfolk and Portsmouth will each get 250.

* LOCATION: In the Hattonsville section of Portsmouth, near Interstate 264 and Tower Mall.

* WHEN READY: Officials hope to begin construction by the fall, 1995. Estimated building time is about two years.